Is Poultry farming in Kenya Profitable?

Poultry farming will remain one of the most profitable agribusiness idea in Kenya. According to economic survey of 2020, the marketed value of chicken and eggs in 2019 was Ksh. 9, 227.8 million and Ksh. 12,069.2 million in 2018 using the current market prices. It arises from the growing demand for white chickens’ meat, eggs and its related products like one day old chicks, chicken cages and incubators.

20172018201920202021
Value of Chicken & Eggs
(Ksh Million)
10674.812069.29227.89478.89690.70
Recorded Marketed agriculture products @ current market prices

There are different types of poultry farming like turkey, ducks and guinea fowls in Kenya. You will find it practiced all over the country in every county.

Related

How profitable is poultry layers farming in Kenya?

How Profitable is Poultry broilers farming in Kenya?

Is Improved Kienyeji chicken farming in Kenya Profitable?

Chicken farming is the most popular as its farmer’s and consumers’ best choice at home and hotels. Chicken products have high demand across all the social-economic groups. According to the census 2019 results, there are 38.82 million chickens. 30.32 million birds were indigenous chicken while the rest are exotic types raised for commercial purpose. The layers chicken are more than the broiler chicken at 5.58 million birds compared to 2.91 million birds.

poultry farming in Kenya

How to do a profit and cost analysis in Poultry farming

There are many success poultry farms in Kenya. You can start one too for high profits share in this multi-billion sector.  You will need to follow good agriculture practices to get high profits. It involves proper chicken houses, vaccination and strict feeding program like one by Kenchic poultry farm.

How much money can you make keeping chicken in Kenya? You need to estimate the costs and profits before you can invest. you will need a simple profit analysis to accomplish that. One of the tools you can use is the Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) for chicken farming. It will compares;

  1. The total revenue you can get for selling; live birds, chicken meat, eggs and chicken manure
  2. The cost (capital and operating expenses) of starting and raising 50, 100, 250 or 5000 chicken.
    • You will incur the capital expense one time; at the start of your business to build the chicken coop and buy equipment.
    • The operating expense is a variable cost you will incur to buy and rear chicken. It includes the price of a 1-day-old chick, vaccines, chicken feed, etc.

The analysis has various assumptions for quantity requirements per bird. It also uses the current prices of farm inputs and finished products.  

Which is the most profitable poultry farming in Kenya?

The complete cost and profit analysis for chicken farming in Kenya has a series of four blog posts. Each has the total revenue, total cost, gross and net profit for farming, indigenous chicken, layers or broilers. The analysis for each type of chicken looks into 100, 200, 500 and 1,000 birds reared under an intensive production system.

According to the analysis results;

  • It is unprofitable to rear layers chicken if you keep less than about 300 birds. See the full analysis for layers chicken.
  • If you keep broiler chicken, the price per bird is above KES 450. You will incur losses even at 1,000 birds. See the full analysis for broiler chicken.
  • Indigenous chicken farming is the most profitable in Kenya. Besides, its meat and eggs fetch higher retail prices compared to the exotic types. See the full analysis for IC.

Layers Vs broiler profits

But as a farmer, other questions you may want to know is whether between layer and broiler farming which is more profitable? What is better between kuroiler vs layers farming?

From out analysis of 100 birds? a 100 layers will give you a net loss of KES 47,850. at the same time, a 100 broilers will give you a net loss of KES 4,420 making it more profitable. A complete comparison for which chicken farming is most pofitable between broilers vs layers vs country chicken is as shown.

Chicken Type and PopulationLayers Chicken farming Profits
(KES)
Broilers Chicken farming Profits
(KES)
Improved Kienyeji chicken farming profits
(KES)
100 birds(47,850)(4,420)*12= (53,040)8,600
200 birds(10,600)(2,490)*12= (29,880)102,300
500 birds117,4501,670*12= 20,040399,350
1000 birds325,8504,700*12= 56,400435,150
A comparison of cost and profits of growing layers, broilers or indigenous chicken in Kenya

PS: Net profits for layers and kuku Kienyeji is for 21 months (84 weeks) production cycle, Broiler chicken farming cycle takes 7 weeks. Multiply broiler chicken profit results by 12 to get similar figures for accurate comparison.

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1 Comment

  • Thanks Abdi, Kindly contact us with the specific advice you would wish from us,
    Regards

    19 September - 2023 at 11:31 AM